At home with Jeb Loy...
Sound/Word Enthusiast | Rhode Island, USA | 01/13/2009
(5 out of 5 stars)
"...there are many Jeb Loy Nichols: low-fi country-dub troubadour, slick pop-soul crooner, honky-tonk classicist, producer, compiler, curator, arresting visual artist. Each record is a different journey, along its own roads. The consistent values apparent in his now nineteen-year-old career are a certain emotional immediacy and a great gift for finding a common sense of soul through a wide range of seemingly disparate styles.
I'm a fan, and I've enjoyed walking the different roads with Jeb Loy -- but my favorite path has almost always been the low-fi country-dub stuff. Witness the wondrous Fellow Travelers records or, more recently, the great 2003 October EP. In this world, Nichols draws a brilliant line through hardcore country, fierce dub, and classic soul, connecting them all and creating music that lets all three live and breath simultaneously while emerging as something new entirely.
"Parish Bar" is firmly in that camp, a murky yet shimmering set of home recordings that throb with a deep dub bass, while whispering as romantically as the finest soul ballads. There are two tracks re-done from his last album, the fine "Days Are Mighty," along with a set of songs as quirky and unguarded as anything Nichols has released.
Some of it (like the strangely affecting audio verite "Country Boy") is borderline experimental, other times it is proudly pop. Two tunes ("Satan's Helper" and "I Took a Memory to Lunch") are fine country songs that, had they showed up on the Okra Allstars record, would be pure honky-tonk. Here, they are given a wonderful, almost under-water dub-soul treatment. Throughout, Nichol's vocals are typically exquisite: the perfect balance of tough and twang.
If you're new to his music, or if you haven't heard a record of his in a while, "Parish Bar" is a great reminder of what makes Nichols such a refreshing, inventive, ingenious musician..."
Parish Bar
G. C. Sluder | 02/15/2009
(3 out of 5 stars)
"I bought this CD based on an interview that was aired on public radio. In that interview the two songs played sounded like they were from a later day JJ Cale. When I played the CD, the only two songs that sounded like JJ Cale were the ones that NPR ( or PRI) chose. They were not typical of the rest of the CD. Nevertheless on average this is a CD that is interesting but not one that I will play often."